Better business decisions for
creative founders.
Strategy, coaching and practical guidance to help you turn creative ideas into commercially sustainable businesses.
Hi, I’m Mirela, but you can call me Mimi.
For the past twenty years, I’ve worked with creative founders as an entrepreneur, journalist, teacher, consultant and coach. Over the last six years, I’ve supported more than 800 founders through over 2,000 one-to-one conversations at London College of Fashion.
Across those experiences, I’ve seen how much creativity it takes to start a business and how difficult it can be to decide what to do next.
Building a business is a series of decisions.
Creative founders rarely struggle because they lack ideas. The challenge is working out whether there is demand, who the business is for, how it will make money and where to focus limited time and energy.
Project M brings strategy, coaching and practical tools together to help you understand your options, make informed decisions and build a commercially sustainable business without losing sight of what matters to you.
PROJECT M FRAMEWORK
Five questions behind a stronger creative business
Creative businesses need more than an appealing idea. These five areas help founders look at the business as a whole, understand where the gaps are and decide what needs attention next.
Desirable
Does somebody want it?
Understanding who the business is for, the problem or desire behind the idea and whether there is enough demand.
Meaningful
Why should people care?
Clarifying the value you create, what the brand stands for and how to communicate it distinctively.
Viable
Can it make money?
Building a workable business model, setting prices, understanding costs and making realistic decisions about growth.
Discoverable
How will the right people find it?
Choosing the marketing, sales channels and partnerships that connect the business with the right people.
Sustainable for you
Can you keep going?
Managing time, energy and uncertainty while building a business that supports your ambitions and your life.
WORK WITH ME
Support for the decisions behind your business
Every founder arrives with a different question. You may be testing an idea, reviewing your business model, clarifying your positioning or trying to find a way forward when everything feels tangled.
Strategy and business advisory
Practical support to examine your idea, customer, business model, positioning and priorities before deciding what to do next.
Coaching for founders
A reflective space to work through uncertainty, confidence, competing priorities and the personal challenges of building a business.
Workshops, talks and founder programmes
Interactive sessions for incubators, accelerators, creative organisations and founder communities, combining business strategy with practical tools.
START ME UP
The realities behind building a creative business
Start Me Up is where I explore the decisions, challenges and patterns I’ve encountered after two decades of working with creative founders.
Through practical guidance, founder experiences and conversations with specialists, it offers an honest look at what it takes to build a creative business and keep going when the path is less straightforward than expected.
TESTIMONIALS
What are you working on?
Whether you’re developing an idea, reviewing the direction of your business or creating a programme that supports founders, I’d love to hear from you.